Rubin Foundation Awards Grants to 60 Organizations Aligned with Art and Social Justice

The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation has awarded 60 organizations in New York City grants to help fund day-to-day operations as well as programming and exhibitions. The grants vary in amount between $5,000 and $20,000, with the total reaching $777,000.

The grants draw from the New York-based foundation’s Art and Social Justice initiative, established in 2015 to with a mission to use “art as a tool for advocacy and creative change, inclusive community engagement, and the promotion of greater civic participation and public discourse.”

Among the awardees are the Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay & Lesbian Art, which had a stellar year of programming since its reopening last year, as well as Creative Time, Working Artists and the Greater Economy (W.A.G.E.), the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Laundromat Project, and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. The foundation has also given grants to several artists residency programs, including Residency Unlimited, BronxArtSpace, Culture Push, and Weeksville Heritage Center.

In a statement, Sara Reisman, the foundation’s executive and artistic director, said, “With so many at-risk communities under pressure, we were compelled to support smaller organizations whose work is responsive to the current political climate, models experimentation, and offers sustained engagement. We also wanted to ensure that high caliber artistic programming is made available to communities who are not conventionally served by arts philanthropy.”